As far as I can tell, even though uneven exchange of trade between nations means that someone, somewhere must be taking on debt or selling off assets, only Nationalists actually care about the trade deficit.
The Left in general would prefer to see the end of nations, and want “reparations” to go to “brown people” from the developed countries for the sins of colonialism. (Never mind the colonialism of their own movements.)
The Liberals also want an end to nations, and everyone singing along happily together, but under Capitalism. Also they really are individualists, so they don’t think countries have a ‘right’ to hang onto their wealth.
The Capitalists like it because, aside from making the money themselves, weakening nations and loading them up with debt messes with the state’s abilities to regulate their behavior and make them do things like quit using child labor. Further, weakening nations weakens the states themselves, but most people cannot see this.
“Global trade, but we don’t keep a net trade deficit or surplus across the total of our trade with all nations” would likely be beneficial to American workers, but who cares about that?
